kadydid designs: Guest Blogger: Livi Joy

Hello beautiful people!

My name is Kerry and I am so appreciative to Alyssa for allowing me to share my heart in this space today. Alyssa is a new friend and I am so thankful for this online community that brought us together.

My husband and I are adoptive parents to two little people. Our littlest, Toby, just came home about 6 months ago. As many of you may know, adoption can be very expensive and most people who feel called to adopt don't have a huge amount of savings to use for the adoption. So we have to get creative.

Before bringing Toby home we researched fundraising options and my husband and I always loved the idea of selling t-shirts to raise money for our adoption. We looked at some online tee companies but never really loved the designs plus we kind of liked the idea of printing our own. So a few months before we found out about Toby's situation, when we were still waiting, we ordered a screen printing kit and started playing around with and learning about screen printing. We had a lot of fun with it but then things with Toby happened so fast, we never got around to actually making any shirts.

On our way home from Florida, where Toby was born, we talked about the press and the other supplies we had in our house and what we should do with them. We decided we wanted to start a little business and help another family on their adoption journey.

One thing we learned from our journey to get Toby is that even though the adoption journey can feel lonely at times there is a large adoption community (online and in our churches) and they are some of the most generous people on the planet. We literally could not have adopted Toby if it had not been for so many generous people. With that in mind, we decided that as a family we wanted to come alongside another adoptive family and support them on their adoption journey. We decided we wanted to walk with them until their child came home. And we wanted to tell their story and pray with them and just be with them on their journey.

livi joy is the small business that was born out of this. Livi is what we call our oldest daughter, Alivea - the one who stole our heart 6 years ago when she joined our family through adoption. I had no idea how adoption was going to change my life when she was born. I had no idea how adoption was going to draw me closer to Jesus. And now it's our family business- standing with another family because ONE matters. We believe that. We believe that ONE family, ONE orphan, ONE child matters.

Within a few weeks of coming home we found out about the Ludwig's, a super sweet family from Alabama who had answered the call to step out on their adoption journey. Their story was a lot like ours. A step of faith with no safety net. Just wanting to be obedient.

We have developed a friendship with the Ludwig's and it is our desire to bless them on their journey and walk with them until their little one is in their arms.

We opened our shop two months ago and have been designing and selling tees to benefit the Ludwig's adoption fund. A large portion of the sale from every tee goes directly to them.

Today, we are giving one away. There are so many ways to enter. Simply use the entry form below to be entered to win a tee of your choice.